It's Hot!

Life is so good right now!  Derek and I are loving watching our little baby girl grow up and she is sure doing just that!  She is almost a year old.  Unbelievable.  Carlsbad has been HOT, HOT, HOT.  It has been over 100 degrees for so many days this summer.  My mentality about what hot means has totally changed.  I am happy when it's only 100 degrees.  I think the highest it has gotten this summer is 108 degrees but the steady temperature seems to be 102. It has been tricky for me and Carly to keep ourselves entertained becasue it is too hot to be outside and there is not a whole lot to do in Carlsbad but thanks to our good friends and Sonic happy hour, we are surviving. 

 Ready to go camping!

 I had to make a choice while we were camping.  Do I try to keep Carly semi-clean and hold her most the time or do I let her loose and let her get DIRTY!  I chose the second option and she loved that choice.  She definitely got dirty but had a blast!

 Carly would fill this cup with dirt, dump it on herself, and then start all over again.  This time she decided to dump it in her mouth!  

 One dirty girl!

Daddy and Carly getting ready for a hike! I love these two so much! They light up my life.

 Carly's favorite car activity!  She loves her books.

 Carly was using her shoe as a dish for her goldfish!  So silly!

 Derek and I went on a date in the park and took Carly with us.  She conked out at right about seven on this blanket.  She was out. 

 Fishin' for kisses!

 I love her sunglasses and she actually will keep them on if I distract her at first from pulling them off her face.

 Carly's new mean face.  She pulls this face all the time now and I can't help but laugh.  She is such a stink some times.

Carly and Finn looking at each other!  Carly loves her little Finn friend! 

Summertime!

I know it's not quite summer yet but here in Carlsbad it feels like the middle of the summer! We have hit 100 degrees already and for the last couple of weeks it has been in the high 90's! It is HOT! We have had a really good time lately. There is just something about the sun shining and leaves turning green that makes me happy.

 Derek's sister Melissa came and visited us for a couple of weeks and it was a BLAST! She has two sweet kids and McKenna, her youngest, is just a little bit younger than Carly! 

Carly, Nathan, and McKenna getting ready to have a picnic and go swimming at the beach of Carlsbad! (It's a man-made beach that goes up to a river :))



Rhett and Derek playing with the kids at the beach!



Now Derek and I know that we can have three kids and still keep our car even if all our kids are still in carseats. It was so fun to see the cousins together.

Now that's teamwork!  I wonder who thinks their the queen?

I was able to go to Lindsay's house again and visit.  It was really fun this time because of a couple reasons. 
1. My friend Ashlee was able to come visit too, it was so good to see her and it felt just like old times, except with babies!
2. Carly was able to crawl this time and she followed Brett and Dantzel everywhere. Brett is so sweet to her and tries to involve her in everything. 

The three amigos or the three stooges depending on what time of day it was!

The girls... plus babies!

This is my sister's youngest, Kelsey! She is so sweet! She loves her mama and will just smile and coo at her all day!

I sent this picture to Derek while we were gone!  He was so proud of his little rock-climber.

So sweet! I'm not sure what color her eyes are but I am sure they are gorgeous!

My mother-in-law Bonnie bought matching dresses for the little babies!  They were so cute! We did a little photoshoot with them!  It was difficult but really fun! 

McKenna and Carly

On my birthday Derek and I stopped for lunch at Subway, got a fruit slushie from Sonic and headed out to this beautiful place called Sitting Bull Falls.  We had heard about it but had never been because it was closed due to a fire they had last year.  It recently opened so we decided to see what it was all about.  We were shocked at how pretty it was.  You don't see very many pretty things in Southern New Mexico.  Unless you think sagebrush and yellow grass is pretty. It really was beautiful though and we had a great time.

Derek came home from a twelve hour work day completely brown.  From the top of his head to the toes of his boots.  It was funny and sad :)

A Lot to Catch up on!

I decided to finally bite the bullet and do another blog!  I always get so excited when someone updates their blog that I thought I should update mine also!  Of course, quite naturally, Carly will be the focus of this blog as she is the focus of our lives! 

Look at that face...how could she not be the focus of our lives? Man, I love this girl!  She is such a joy!

Ashlee and David came and visited us a few months ago!  We went to the Carlsbad Caverns.  They were really neat!  Carly didn't LOVE them, okay she hated them but everyone else thought they were pretty cool.  We all started down the big hole you see behind Derek and I in this picture.  Carly started crying and would not stop.  Derek decided he would hike back out and hang out with her while we finished up the Caverns.  Well he did and then I realized that nursing baby needs their momma.  So I hiked back out too.  We met Ashlee and David in "the Big Room."  You can either hike down to the big room or take an elevater from the main building.  We got Curls settled down and took the elevator down to the big room about an hour later and met up with Ashlee and David there!  Carly slept the rest of the time and it worked out great!



Carly and I were able to visit Lindsay and Jeff in February.  It was so fun. One morning Brett had "Coldies" which means that he was cold.  He got a jacket on and them wrapped his blanket around his legs.  We thought it would be good if all the kids took care of their "coldies" Brett style!



Cutest cousins I ever did see! Carly loves her cousins and was so happy the whole time!



Brett can do a front wheelie...

and a back wheelie, all while pulling the cutest smile I ever did see! Love you Brett!

Flower Power!

ALL ABOUT CARLY

Carly is almost nine months old and weighs just under 20 pounds and is about 27 in. long!

She LOVES to clap and cheers herself on!  I love how her clap has evolved.  She used to fling her hands which were in fists togheter but her hands never really hit.  Then she clapped by having one had open and the other hand in a fist, this time actually making contact, and now she claps with both hands open. 

She is great at using her pinchers to pick up food and ANYTHING else that she sees!

She can suck through a straw.

She waves hi and bye and loves to do so! 

She says Dada(favorite), Mama, and more (not more words but the actual word more!) I am pretty sure she said dog the other day too!

She is a very social person.  She is happiest when there are lots of people around!

She likes to spend time alone in her crib right after she wakes up. (I will go in there and put my arms out to pick her up and she will grab my hands and push them away :) )

She can go from laying down to sitting up, which has made the going to bed process a little bit more exciting. At the same time I can't think of anytihng cuter than looking in Carly's room to see if she is still napping and to see her sitting up in her crib with a huge smile on her face waving at me!

She always has to have something in her hand.  Her favorite thing to have in her hand is an octupus finger puppet!

Carly is the best baby, until I bring the food out, then the monster in her comes out! It's not that she doesn't like food, in fact quite the opposite, she loves it a little too much.  She just isn't very patient when it comes to eating.  When she sees food she wants it and she wants it now!!! She is hilarious.

Here are some pictures of Carly sleeping.  She gets in the funniest positions lately!  

Ballerina!

So sweet! She fell asleep right after eating a snack!

Carly actually fell asleep like this.  Like I said, going to sleep is a little more exciting now that she can sit herself up from laying down.  She just go so tired that she just face planted it and fell asleep!

I was helping Rhett with school and I look over to see how Carly is doing and she decided that is was time to take a nap!

Fell asleep with her seahorse right on her face!

 Like I said before Carly ALWAYS has something that she is holding on too!

Holding on to a piece of bark! She held on to that thing for forever!

Holding on to rubber duckey sporting Dad's new hat!

Her famous Octopus!

Me and my baby girl! 



Carly's first rainstorm!  It doesn't rain in Carlsbad very much but when it rains, it pours.  Carly and I were in Albertsons for probably 10 minutes.  When we first got there, there was no rain.  When we left, it was raining like crazy.  We got soaked just trying to run to our car.  It was pretty fun!




Carly loves to hold on to the strings of the blinds and look outside.



Derek and I have been spending a lot of our afternnons working on a water table for Carly's first birthday.  We are way excited about it and it is super fun to have something we can work together on. 



Carly is waving at Daddy while he works on the table!

We were working on the table the other night and carly found the hose.  Well the hose was leaking out water a little bit and Carly instantly fell in love with the mud!  As soon as she got her hands dirty I had to decide to either wash her hands immediatley and remove her from the area or to let her get dirty and play!  I decided on the latter.  She had a great time!  

This picture really cracks me up!  Carly has such a fun and funny personality.  Right here she was just jabbering dadadadadada while looking at Derek.  I think she is telling him to GET BACK TO WORK!

This picture sums Carly up to a T.  She is so funny!  She does this stiff arm and leg thing when she is trying to be funny and cute!  I love it!



Checking out her puff she just picked up with her pincher finger!  GO CURLS!



The day after she got all muddy, I painted her toenails so she could experience the best of both worlds.  Tom boy and girly!  Let me tell you, babies toenails painted are the cutest thing!